Yellow rock

[mattandersao]

Wanting to avoid the memorial day crowd the wife and I decided to try the hopefully less known Yellow Rock in the GSENM. The original plan was to start on the Yellow Rock trail, loop around through lower death valley, then drop into either Sam Pollock Canyon, or the further down into the Hackberry. This was obviously overly ambitious for us backpacking newbies so my backup plan was Yellow Rock, camp near there, loop around to the Box of the Paria through Cottonwood Wash and back to the parking lot. Many do this as a day hike but I thought it would be cool to camp:2thumbs: .

After reading other trip reports I understood the initial trail from the valley floor to the top would be quite the workout, but somehow I did not understand that their was an actually designated, easily identifiable trail. So Renee (wife) and I risking life and limb, (jk but it did push our comfort level a couple of times especially with semi-heavy packs) found our own trail less scramble to the top others had made the same error as I saw occasional footprints.

I forgot to mention that the bugs(biting gnats) around the Hackberry Trail head Parking lot were horrific. I thought once we hiked away from the water things would improve, I was sadly mistaken!

After the very demanding climb to the top Renee was already to the point of calling it a day! I couldnt blame her going up the wrong way was very difficult and the worst part was we could not stop to take a breather as the biting gnats were still all over us every time you paused even for a moment.

Once on top of the plateau Yellow Rock was clearly visible as was the correct trail. We followed the TRAIL to yellow rock but once again the gnats were terrible. At this point we realized that camping would be very uncomfortable because of the gnats. Using bug spray was futile! We made the decision to hike to the top of Yellow Rock, then return to the car following the correct trail (going down where we went up would have been pretty dangerous with our packs) we dropped our packs off under a Pondorosa, and scrambled to the top of Yellow Rock. Yellow Rock itself was amazing and as was mentioned on this site one of the best short hikes in the area, especially if you follow the correct trail!

Even though our initial plans were thwarted, this TR could be have been posted on the "what was the worst ill never ever do that again trip thread, by my own stupidity, over packing (did I really bring 4 apples, 1/2 pound of cherries, carrots, etc just for snacks WTF?), getting lost and especially the biting demon gnats from hell:angryfire: the trip was a success because
-Yellow Rock is friggin awesome
-I learned my wife is the MAN. I underestimated her!
-Dont go near the Paria area in late May (later read in guide book that the little gnats are bad from late May to July)
-Dont bring the kitchen sink backpacking :lol8:
-Cottonwood Canyon Road is very scenic in late May. The yellow wildflowers were amazing!

All and All a good day in Southern Utah!

As usual more photos at my own blizog www. mattsamazingsouthernutah.blogspot.com (I really need to rename it)

[asdf]

very nice
looks like an awesome area :2thumbs:

[Cirrus2000]

Cool, Matt! I loved that hike, and often mention it to friends. I understand what you mean about going off trail - it's pretty steep, rugged terrain. Way to go!

[Rented mule]

Way Cool! Way to tough it out!!
I like that area, a lot! We actually saw some light gnat activity at the wave the other month when I took Wilderness Seeker and Rejuvenate from Canada. A rare thing?
Although, I heard hiking in many of the streams around here in summer require long pants to keep the mule flies from biting, too.
Great pictures!
Say, what is the name of that large white castle looking rock off in the distance
behind your wife in that one shot? Is it accessible? I see it as the first prominent
feature after driving the miles through the sea of tall sage from Kanab out that way.
I'm always drawn to it. It looks like a giant white peak off of one of Zion's mountains was transplanted there. Odd looking.

[IntrepidXJ]

The biting gnats were terrible for us along Comb Ridge on Memorial Day weekend as well.....the worst I've ever been bothered by them.

[erial]

Castle Rock. Michael Kelsey in his Paria River hiking guide reports climbing Castle Rock 3 times. He doesn't indicate the difficulty. There is a drainage that descends right by the base and on down into Cottonwood Wash. You can easily hike to this drainage from the road, but ascending the wash to Castle Rock is not possible due to a pouroff.
You have to ascend slopes to the left of the drainage and then eventually climb back down into the drainage to gain the base of Castle Rock. No actual user trail, but a random cairn might help lead the way up the approach slope. From my viewpoint I thought there might be some class 4 moments to the route once you got on the rib or ridge of Castle Rock itself, but perhaps someone who has actually summitted could weigh in on the difficulties encountered.

34501

[Rented mule]

thanks, Erial! Stubborn looking, indeed. What a place! Castle rock must be the one
all the old cowboys talk about when driving cattle off the kaibab to market.
Wow! Someday, maybe take a scramble shot at it.
Great picture of it.